Every day, it seems like we’re flinging ourselves faster into a future world previously inhabited by science fiction dreams. Now comes along the MYO by Thalmic Labs, which allows you to have unprecedented gesture control over everything from media applications to remote-controlled vehicles. This device won’t quite let you stand next to the technologically-advanced Captain Kirk or even Iron Man, but it’s shockingly close.
This isn’t a prototype. This isn’t a design student’s pet project. This isn’t even a Kickstarter campaign. The MYO actually exists and you can pre-order it now for a surprisingly low amount of $159. Thalmic Labs expects for the first shipment of MYOs to be available to customers toward the end of 2013. Some people will toss this off as little more than an extension of the Nintendo Wii remote, with its gesture control ability, but the MYO purports to be something that’s much more. With the ability to interact with Windows and Mac OS, along with providing APIs for developers to create compatible programs for iOS and Android, the MYO controls applications and devices in a more direct and exact way than a simple wave in the air. MYO’s commands are based off of the electrical activity in your muscles. According to MYO’s website:
Movements can be detected very quickly – Sometimes, it even looks like the gesture is recognized before your hand starts moving! This is because the muscles are activated slightly before your fingers actually start moving, and we are able to detect the gesture before that happens!
I completely understand why MYO’s marketing team would be so free with the exclamation points. The futuristic extension of the MYO is almost limitless. DJing at clubs. Flying airplanes. Using complicated, miniscule surgery equipment. Most likely though, people will find less stellar ways to use a product of this nature, like having a remote controlled hovercraft retrieve beer from a gesture-controlled refrigerator.
Actually, that sounds awesome too.
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